If you happen know Adrian Padilla, you know that he is a strong man with a strong desire to pitch in.

Transcription

1 Homily for the 20 th Sunday in Ordinary Time [Note: Due to the celebration of our patron saint, the first reading this weekend was substituted with the lectionary passage from August 17 th, the feast of St. Hyacinth: Joshua 3:7-10A, 11, 13-1] This weekend, our parish celebrates the Feast of St Hyacinth. As usual, the festivities include a cookout, an outdoor procession and a music fest featuring our choir and other choirs from around the city. This event has become quite popular but this year s celebration might have a twist. Let me explain. At last week s K of C meeting, one of our knights, Adrian Padilla, volunteered to help carry the statue of St. Hyacinth in the procession. If you happen know Adrian Padilla, you know that he is a strong man with a strong desire to pitch in. Only one problem: Adrian recently underwent knee surgery and he is walking with a temporary limp. So, after he volunteered his services, another knight raised his hand and made the motion that, given Adrian s current condition, Adrian should hitch a ride on the platform alongside the statue of St. Hyacinth. And his brother knights could carry them both.

2 We all laughed! Adrian, of course, protested, saying he was perfectly capable of walking the procession and assisting in carrying the platform with the statue of St. Hyacinth. I m not sure what they decided. The last I heard, Adrian agreed to ride the platform on the condition that he be allowed to wave the Texas flag while doing so!! It might happen, it might not. But since the name of St. Hyacinth is San Jacinto in English, adding a Texas flag to the procession might not be a bad idea. We Catholics like processions. But why do we have them? We hold processions because the Word of God will not let us forget that we are a pilgrim people, that we are but travelers making our way through the challenges and temptations of this world to our eternal home in Heaven. The Word of God will not let us forget that we are pilgrims. Processions are visual reminders of this truth. In today s first reading from the Book of Joshua, we hear about the Jewish priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant on their shoulders to the banks of the River Jordan. As soon as their feet touch the water, the river s current ceases to flow. Just as the Red Sea parted to allow the people of Israel to escape slavery in Egypt and flee destruction at the hands of Pharaoh and his army, so now, forty years after that miracle,

3 another miracle unfolds on the banks of the Jordan, allowing the people of God to cross the mighty river and enter into the promised land of Canaan. Today, at our celebration in honor of St. Hyacinth, I want you to think about the Ark of the Covenant on the shoulders of the priests when you see the statue of St. Hyacinth lifted high and leading us onward. And I ask that you think about another miracle that occurred around the year 1215 on the banks of another river, not the Jordan, but the Dnieper River near the city of Kiev. Here is the story: Invaders were attaching the city. Hyacinth was offering the Holy Mass. During the Mass, attacking soldiers set the church on fire. Hyacinth took the Holy Eucharist in a ciboria along with a statue of Mary, and he and the people escaped the burning church. Outside, on the bank of the river, the current stopped flowing and, with the Eucharist and the image of Our Lady in his arms, Hyacinth led the people to safety. In the Gathering Room of our church, stands the statue of St. Hyacinth. And in his arms, he carries the Holy Eucharist and a statue of Mary. At the conclusion of each Mass, as you pass by this statue,

4 ask the Lord for the grace to imitate our patron saint. Ask the Lord to inform you of what you are to carry in your arms and in your heart out into the world. Whether you realize it or not, you carry many wonderful and holy things in your arms. I witness this every Sunday. I see young parents carrying children in their arms. I see elderly couples holding hands in love and holding arms and elbows in support as they navigate their way through the doors and out into the parking lot. I see communion ministers bringing the Eucharist to the sick. I see people carrying stacks of t-shirts and boxes of tennis shoes to the Emergency Youth Shelter. I see people shaking hands and introducing themselves to visitors from out of town. These are among the holy things we carry. But there are many things that we carry that remain unseen. Things, not in our arms, but in our pockets, stuffed into our wallets or jangling in the bottom of a purse. A credit card with a heavy balance. A bottle of pills for blood pressure. A photo of a daughter who does not return your calls. A receipt for school supplies for your fifth grader who struggles to read.

5 In addition to what we carry in our arms and what we carry in our pockets, we carry things hidden things hard things with sharp edges, things we call sins: Resentment. Self-pity. Hatred. Envy. Racial prejudice. Years ago, a man named Tim O Brien wrote a short story that now appears in anthologies read in American Literature classes. The story is called, The Things They Carried. It s about soldiers in Viet Nam and the things they carried in their backpacks and pockets: Letters from home. A picture of their sweetheart. A rosary. A Bible. A pack of Lucky Strikes. There is no dialogue in the story. No storyline or plot. Just the things they carried. We come to know the soldiers through the things they carried. Their identity is reveals through the things they carried. This weekend, our parish celebrates its feast day. We will carry a statue of our patron in a public procession. We will we walk together,

6 we will pray together we will pray for one another and we will ask St. Hyacinth to pray for us as well. That he who carried the Eucharist across a river deep and wide, will ask the Lord to take note of the things that we carry with us today, in our hands, in our pockets, in our hearts and our minds. We will pray that that the Lord will lift the burden of any sins that we carry, that the Lord will strengthen our will to ease the burdens that others carry that the Lord will tighten our grip on the things that we need to carry and must continue to carry, namely: a strong faith, steadfast hope, and sincere love for the world that He created and the people He longs to save.